Tree crowns in the Hainich National Park

Group Terrestrial Ecohydrology

Tree crowns in the Hainich National Park
Image: Janett Filipzik

The group applies modeling and field research to investigate the feedbacks between vegetation and the water cycle from the top of the canopy to the bottom of the rooting zone. Our main focus lies on interaction processes that have a capacity to tip the overall system behaviour, and we seek to understand the related mechanisms in order to better represent them in environmental models. We investigate canopy processes, vegetation induced spatial patterns of soil hydrologic properties and soil moisture as well as the process of root water uptake.

The group was in fall 2018 formed based on a joint professorship between the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZExternal link  in Leipzig. We belong both to the Institute for GeosciencesExternal link at the FSU and the Department Computational HydrosystemsExternal link at UFZ.

Group Terrestrial Ecohydrology (Office)

Institute of Geoscience, Room H206
Burgweg 11
07749 Jena Google Maps site planExternal link

Opening hours:
Montag 09:00-12:00
Mittwoch 09:00-12:00
Donnerstag 09:00-12:00

Learn more about

News from the group

  • Graduation Day

    What a proud moment! Working across the spectrum of ecohydrology from sampling hot Spanish soil hydraulic properties, to freezing cold winter sampling of canopy precipitation, over temperate cherry-tree water consumption, tree hydraulics, and coupled modelling. Bravely navigated! Congratulations to our groups graduates: Paul, Oskar, Max, student lab assistance Leonie, Florian and Anna-Lena. Oh, the places you'll go!

    Graduates 2024
    Image: Leonie Wagenknecht

  • New paper out: Does root water uptake occur homogenously in a forest?

    External link

    Spoiler: No. In our case, it depended mainly on a combination of high neighborhood tree diversity and basal area (how many trees populate the neighborhood). Not unexpected? Well, if you are an ecologist! Soil scientists would expect an effect of soil properties and precipitation below the canopy. Great to have a distributed sensor network in the Hainich CZE AquaDiva and a hard working scientist to analyze it. Very inspiring work of Dr. Gökben Demir! Follow the link above to learn more.

    Roots in the Hainich NP
    Image: Anke Hildebrandt

  • Paper on influence of canopy redistribution on soil water

    External link

    It was a long time coming. This publication is based on AquaDiva's high resolution dataset of canopy fluxes, soil water content and soil properties in the Hainich CZE. Here, we asked whether below canopy precipitation patterns actually affect how moisture is distributed. The answer: Not as much as we thought! First, soil water content increase shows the patterns much more than soil water content itself, because precipitation is small compared to soil water storage. But we also see strong signs of preferential flow dampening the soil moisture patterns. Take a look!

    Keyfigure HESS Fischer et al 2023
    Graphic: Anke Hildebrandt, Johanna Metzger